It's Friday - Coffee at Kate's

The week so far has produced roughly 7500 words. Not sure they are good but they are there to be edited later. Trying not to over think things nad just let the story develop. We'll see.

In the meantime, its coffee time at Kate Harrison's blog, http://chicklitworkinprogress.blogspot.com/. It's great to the progress of the other racers. We have two one to introduce - Sheepish, you can find her here, http://ashepherdstale.blogspot.com/, and Sarah - she's here http://itwontwriteitself.blogspot.com/.

Well, back to Kate's blog to see how all the other's have done this week.

Not Bad

Just over 2000 words written today. Respectable. It's the first day without kids in the house. I have another 20 minutes until peace disappears. I am wondering how long it will take me to get into the swing of writing again. I seem to be nibbling here and there but don't feel back into the groove.

I'm also wondering where I'm going with the story. I think I have now set up both main character well and developed the love interest a bit. Although I have mind mapped the story I'm leaving it to the flow as how and when they key plot events happens. This could be very unwise. August Rock just flowed with the plot events tumbling out nicely. This is more of a character based book so I'm feeling my way through it blind.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's coffee break for racers over on Kate Harrison's blog, http://chicklitworkinprogress.blogspot.com/. Hopefully all the racers will report in and we will find some new ones. I am enjoying jumping around to check on progress. Hopefully this will keep me motivated and procrastinating!

No Surprises

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

I was reading Maht's blog, http://moontopples.blogspot.com/ and saw the above. Anyone who has known me for any length of time will not be surprised as I wasn't! However it was interesting to do and it confirmed that despite the frsutration at times I am pursuing the right course. Of course I should have been writing and not taking quizzes but.............back to the wip. Will update word count later.

New Racers

Two new racers have joined the fray, Dave Hill http://davehill.typepad.com/temperama/ and Hera http://thejealousy.blogspot.com/. I keep checking the progress of the others telling my self it is not procrastenation but know if I hadn't checked then I would have spent those minutes adding to my word total.......right? no, I would have found something else to do. You see I still have one child home and time spent writing is time not with him so I feel guilty. Sadly he goes back to school tomorrow so for the rest of today it is a Lord of Rings marathon session.

I shall probably find the my hero Mark start to look like Aragon when I write again tomorrow:)

Right Voice

Sometimes it's good to have kids. The crows of doubt were circling about Serena's voice in the book and I ran her chapter past the 14 year old ds and he said yeah he kinda thinks like that....So provided one year doesn't make too much of a difference and I supply the female aspect myself I may just have found the correct voice for Serena. Phew.

Now that I am in writing mode again my reading dwindles to drip feed except for research. However I have to read Sarah Waters Nightwatch by next Monday for book club. Must get down to the tonight.

But thinking about books led me to think what my top five reads of 2006 were. It was a tough choice and I have devided them by mainstream and catagory - a way of cheating so I could list more!

1. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
2. Life Skills by Katie Fforde
3. An Old Fashioned Arrangement by Susie Vereker
4. The Kite Runner by Kalid Hosseini
5. Any Human Heart by William Boyd


1. Blind Date Wedding by Fiona Harper
2. White Hot by Trish Wylie
3. Being a Bad Girl by Julie Cohen
4. Antonakos Marriage by Kate Walker
5.Five Year Baby Secret by LIz Fielding

A Little Bit

Trying to keep in the race when I have three kids home and the dh working from home is tricky and policitcally risky. They think I am just surfing the web and not actually producing anything but they are wrong. Just over 1000 words written today. Not great but not bad either.

Back on the the He Wrote/She Wrote site http://www.crusiemayer.com/workshop/, Jennifer Crusie offers that one shouldn't know the intent or theme or your work before you write the first draft. She feels you might be in danger of beating your reader over the head with it if you think about it all the time. She opts for defining it after the first draft and subtly highlighting in the reworking. Good idea but now I do have one of my main theme's in mind. Is it at the forfront all the time - no. When writing all I see is a movie screen in front of me and I write down key details and dialogue. At least that's what I hope I do.

I'm into chapter three and I am hoping the voice of Serena is right.......crows of doubt arriving early today.

Fear of Being Left Behind

Today we leave Cornwall and I must pack. Something I dread. It's so boring and the kids hate it. There fore I'm procrastinating. This time though the delay is caused by writing. I scrolled through the blogs of Kate Harrison and Lucy Diamond to see the progress of two of my fellow racers. Kate is in the lead and Lucy not too far behind.

If I left writing until I reached London and the kids are back in school I could never hope to catch up. That's my excuse anyway. The word count is now up to 1,635. Not great and would be better if it was now late morning and I do need to get the house ready depart.

Ideas and Writing

Having written the first 250 words of A Cornish House back in September I put the book aside to rework August Rock. That is now done and I'm now playing with research and gearing up for the big push.......The Word Count Challenge (see the side bar for those who are in the race or Kate Harrison's blog) for details.

In my procrasentation I have been searching blogs.....from the Grumpy Old Bookman here I found a link to CS Harris herewho has an interesting discussion of crafting of a book and currently working on characters. She has put up a list of her favorite character and also of those who she would want to have a relationships with. I won't try that today - to much procrastenation really! However I think it is interesting that Rasored Zen here who commented on her blog chose all his favorite female characters from male authors.......another item to comtemplate.

On a more concrete line I send thanks to the Teach Me tonight Blog here . A reference there sent me to Jennifer Cruise / Bob Mayer workshop He Wrote She Wrote here. The first installment of the workshop talks about the One Sentence Idea. That has forced some concrete ideas out into the journal. I hate trying to sum up my intent for the novel but I can see how this can possibly make the story easier to write . However it might spoil the surprises that seem to occur out of mid air when I get in the full throws of writing.

Having said the above, I realize that by instict rather than design those first 250 words really do throw up the intent of the novel -the clash between the generations. Their search to find common ground and how often they miss the target. Of course I what to show how love untimately builds the brides and mixing metaphors provides the translation required.

So although it's nearly eleven this morning and I haven't written a single new word, I do have a clearly idea in my mind about what the story is ultimately about. So here's to productive procrastenation.

Word Count Challenge

I am have bravely or maybe foolishly joining in Kate Harrison's New Year's Word Count Challenge. You can visit her site here and see who else has jumped on the band wagon Chicklit Work in Progress. I have 250 words written so I must get cracking if I am going to keep up however I am blissfully still in Cornwall with all my notes in London. So I'll continue to focus on the research while here for another few days.

Along the lines of research for A Cornish House, my mil is guiding my hand from above again. I was looking through the book shelves wondering where to start on the the house for the book. I know which house and where but I needed details of Cornish vernacular style and what do my eyes fall on but another of June's wonderful books......A Cornishman's House. The answer to my prayers as it even has a bit on the house in question!

So I will have to get a word counter onto the blog and you can watch this challenge progress!

Chapel

Today we lunch at the wonderful New Yard Bistro at Trellowarren. As always the food was fabulous and it gave me a chance to show friends the chapel that used in my mind for the chapel in Trevenen in August Rock. The one at Trellowarren is large but in Trevenen it is less than half the size.